Tallinn, Estonia

It was a cold and rainy day. We had planned today for museums as most places are closed on Mondays.

The museum we most wanted to see was Vabamu (The Museum of Occupations and Freedom) which wasn’t too far from our hotel. It’s really well done with an audio tour that takes you through the recent history of Estonia. We spent almost two hours there. It’s quite moving.

From there we went to NUKU, a puppet museum. There are some interactive displays. Here’s a goofy little hand puppet show by Heather (it’s a silent show, the audio is a kid in the background).

We had lunch at a little Italian place cause we had a pizza craving. It was run by a guy from Rome who had just opened a few weeks ago. The pizzas were excellent. He gave us an amaro after, just like in Rome. It rained on and off while we were eating, so we stretched out the lunch cause it was a cosy place.

We had an early reservation for dinner at a place just north of the old city, about a half hour walk. It was still rainy and cold so decided to cancel the reservation and try for something closer.

Most food bloggers had mentioned Rataskaevu 16 but we hadn’t been able to get a booking. Apparently people book three months in advance (!). So we took our chances with a walk in. We arrived just before 8pm, and at first they said they were full, then did some internal consulting, and then they seated us. Yay!

Dinner was excellent. For appetizers I had the salmon tartare and Heather tried the artichoke and fennel salad. For mains Heather had the whitefish with lentils and vegetables; I had the steak. We had a blue cheesecake for dessert. I also tried a craft beer, an IPA by Põhjala, which was very good. All round a great meal, we were lucky to get in!

It was about 10pm and the lighting was perfect for pictures so walked around for a bit. We came across a place called DM Baar which played only Depeche Mode music, so stopped in for a couple drinks. Later we read the blurb on the outside and apparently the bar is on lists of unusual bars in the world. The band actually dropped in a couple times when they were touring through Tallinn.